Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - New England Patriots Offensive Woes Continue, Mac Jones Struggles in 24-10 Loss to Buffalo Bills

Episode Date: December 3, 2022

As the New England Patriots offense led by quarterback Mac Jones continued to sputter, the Pats could do little to match the output of Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills. The Pats dropped their Week 13 matchup with Buffalo 24-10. Joining host Mike D’Abate is Steve Balestrieri of PatsFans.com. The duo break down the Pats loss by examining their defensive struggles, their numerous offensive problems, but have some praise for cornerback turned wide receiver Marcus Jones.Find and follow Locked On Patriots on your favorite podcast platforms:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/locked-on-patriots-daily-podcast-on-the-new-england/id1140512627 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1c5ZxFmwg3WbfxAU3tR5Ve?si=k196wH-yRqifUcQQz8SjIQStitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/locked-on-patriots And follow host Mike D’Abate on Twitter, where he’ll be sharing the latest news about the New England Patriots and talking with fans.On Twitter: @mdabateNFLSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!LinkedInLinkedIn Jobs helps you find the candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONNFLBuilt BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!PrizePicksFirst time users can receive a 100% instant deposit match up to $100 with promo code LOCKEDON. That’s PrizePicks.com – promo code; LOCKEDONSimpliSafeWith Fast Protect™️ Technology, exclusively from SimpliSafe, 24/7 monitoring agents capture evidence to accurately verify a threat for faster police response. There’s No Safe Like SimpliSafe. Visit SimpliSafe.com/LockedOnNFL to learn more.TuroForget boring rental cars and find your drive at Turo.com AudibleHead over to Locked On NFL for a sneak peak of Block Forever or catch the full series available anywhere you get your podcast. Available everywhere now! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Did the Buffalo Bills deal the New England Patriots a knockout blow to their playoff hopes in 2022? Stick around, we've got the answer for you today. You're about to be locked in to the Locked On Patriots podcast. You are Locked On Patriots, your daily New England Patriots podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello to all of you Foxborough faithful, and thank you once again for making Lockdown Patriots a daily part of your New England Patriots coverage and also your first listen every day. Remember, Lockdown Patriots is free and available on all platforms, including YouTube. So smash that subscribe button, download, subscribe to follow Lockdown Patriots

wherever you get your audio podcasts. And today's episode is brought to you by BetOnline. BetOnline has you covered this season with more props, more odds, and more lines than ever before. BetOnline, where the game starts. Pats fans, as Andrew Shepard would say in 1995's The American President, the New England Patriots have serious problems and they need serious people to solve them. The Pats dropping to 6-6 on the 2022 NFL season with a 24-10 loss to the Buffalo Bills on Thursday night at Gillette Stadium.

Definitely not ideal. It's an overused phrase in our industry, but it really is the most appropriate phrase that you can think of for the Patriots right now. Here today to help me break it all down is one of our very favorites here on the pod. He is a columnist extraordinaire for Patsfans.com, as well as being the co-host of not one, but two amazing podcasts, Patriots 4th and 2, and One Patriots Place. He is also my Patriots bison, my good buddy. Steve Balistrieri joins me here today. Steve, welcome to the show, my friend. I wish it was under better circumstances for the New England Patriots.

Oh, the last two Thursday nights have been painful, haven't they? They have. They lost a game that was eminently winnable in Minnesota, and they just got embarrassed last night again by the Bills. The score really doesn't indicate how much the Bills dominated that football game. Yeah, 24-10 does not tell the full story. The Patriots' futility on offense, third down woes continue, 0-1 in the red zone.

You cannot expect to win games in that fashion, but it wasn't all one-sided for the New England Patriots. They had some defensive problems as well. They continue to have difficulty shutting down Josh Allen. You got to give a lot of credit to Allen, Steve. I mean, there's no question about it. The Patriots tried man coverage. Josh was able to slice right through it, finding Stephon Diggs, finding Gabe Davis. Vertical routes over the top, Patriots have had problems with them containing alpha-wide receivers. They switch to zone, and Josh is able to go under it. He's able to go around it. He's able to adjust and find guys like Isaiah McKenzie, extend plays with his legs,

and even utilize guys like Devin Singletary very effectively and James Cook running the football. So when you look at this game as a whole, from start to finish, offense, defense, what stands out to you for the Patriots in terms of the yikes factor, I like to call it? Well, you know, it's not like Josh Allen only does this against New England. He does it against everyone. Yeah, he does. And, you know, I mean, he is incredible. That throw he made moving to the sideline for the touchdown there, it's just, that's one of those plays.

Now, you know, I will say I thought some of the Patriots' defensive backs stopped, you know, when they shouldn't have. They should have played it through. That's a good point. At the same time, you know, there they shouldn't have, they should have played it through. That's a good point. At the same time, you know, there's only a couple of guys in the league that make that kind of a throw. And Josh Allen happens to be one of them that, you know, when I saw that play, I was just shaking my head, you know, that that's,

you know, you're, you're in pretty high stratosphere there when you can make plays like that. And he does that all the time. So we knew going in that that was a really tough matchup for the Patriots. But at the same time, you know, the defense was gassed because the offense wasn't getting anything going. And, you know, I thought the defense was starting to wear down in the end of the first half, but then they made two stops.

They made the Bills punt on one. They forced the turnover on the other, and I was thinking, you know, when they get the turnover, you know, they're down by 10. They go down and score here. You know, it's a new ballgame going into halftime. You know, maybe they found a little bit of, you know, it's a new ball game going into halftime. You know, maybe they found a little bit of, you know, I'm not going to say a blueprint because that's stretching it way too far, but maybe a little something to grasp onto where they could start putting

things together, but then the offense couldn't get anything going. And I think that defense by the third quarter was wore out. Yeah, they absolutely were. And I think Allen took well or took, you know, full advantage of that. And knowing that the Patriots were trying to find any type of scheme they could to slow him down. Again, I mentioned man coverage earlier. Josh is always going to eat you apart with every, you know, step of the way on that. It's just his game and it's how he does work.

But I thought when the Patriots started deploying that fire zone blitz, that five man rush with, you know, the quarterback spy with, you know, Mack Wilson trying to do that on a few plays, that seemed to be the most effective way to try to take Allen out of his game. But I got to give Josh a lot of credit. I mean, he really, he came into this one knowing the alignments and he threw over the areas where the Patriots sent pressure where he expected the pressure to be or expected his defenders to be and then the second level the

slot he was able to utilize those areas to his advantage so always got to give a tip of the cap and a lot of credit to the Buffalo Bills who Steve painfully are just a better team uh you know I mean there's no question about it I mean you, you know, for so long, the New England Patriots had carte blanche when they faced the Buffalo Bills, whether it be in Orchard Park or whether it be here in Foxborough. And the tables have certainly turned. I told Murph earlier this week, that guard has changed, and it's not coming back any time in the foreseeable future

unless the Patriots make serious changes. And we're going to get into some of those changes in just a moment. But I wouldn't be doing my job if we probably didn't talk about the fact that this loss drops the Patriots to 6-6 on the season. They're out of playoff contention if the playoffs were to start today. Digging themselves a deeper hole in the division, but also in the conference overall. Is a loss like this a potential knockout blow to their postseason hopes,

or can the Patriots still string stuff together here? Because they've got a couple of, I believe, winnable games, not easy games, but winnable games coming up against the Arizona Cardinals and the Las Vegas Raiders. It could put them back in the discussion if certain things break their way. Yeah, absolutely. But, you know, looking at the grand scheme of things, I think to have any kind of realistic chance of making the postseason, I think they have to win four games. Yeah, I would agree with that. You know, but I think that's going to be really tough. I mean, yeah, they have the two winnable games. But in fact, I think they've played better on the road this year than they have at home.

So we'll have to see. But that West Coast trip will answer any questions we have. If they can string together two wins, then, then you know maybe they're right back in the middle of things and we'll have to see how everything else plays out it's been a crazy season so i'm not saying they're completely out right now but that loss well those two thursday night losses in a row that really put a damper on things because they were in position two weeks ago, and now they're fading. So things have to change in a hurry. They have to change in a hurry.

They absolutely do. And the New England Patriots are well aware of this. Coach Bill Belichick is well aware of it. We talked to Bill earlier today on Friday, very early in the morning, regarding some of the changes that need to be made. And he's cognizant of these these and most of them that have been identified are on the offensive side of the ball now Bill was not specific in terms of what changes would be made but he did make uh you know an understanding or at least make us uh aware of the fact that he and his coaching staff are well aware

that this brief little respite that the Patriots have before they take the field again on Monday night, December 12th, is going to give them an opportunity to iron out some of the offensive woes that we saw yesterday at Gillette Stadium. Mack Jones, the New England Patriots offense, once again, just not moving the ball and not getting into their end zone, not getting into the red zone, then that is definitely a problem. Steve and I are going to talk about some of those offensive woes in just a moment when this episode of the Lockdown Patriots podcast continues. But first, today's episode is brought to you by our friends over at PrizePix.

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Patriots fans the resonant voice of reason of patsfans.com Steve Balistrieri joins me here today breaking down the Patriots 24 to 10 loss to the Buffalo Bills dropping the Pats to six and six and Steve we talked a little bit in the previous segment about Patriots' playoff hopes, what went wrong on offense and on defense, and a little bit about how Josh Allen was able to carve up the Patriots' defense a little bit. But if we're being honest, the story of the day is the Patriots' futility on offense. And unfortunately, those woes continue. They had a pretty decent output against the Minnesota Vikings just a couple of weeks ago,

just last week, excuse me, Thanksgiving night against the Vikings in Minnesota. But the Patriots, again, just reverted to passive play calling, uncharacteristically bad clock management. And I think, and I put this in an article that I did for Sports Illustrated basically recapping the game their strategy continues to focus on avoiding the loss as opposed to playing to win and this is starting to frustrate some of the players we'll get into that in just a moment but when you look at the offensive output for the New England Patriots are you seeing the same thing or what are you looking at when it comes to the

Patriots offense and their inability to move the football? Oh, it was awful. I mean, and I think you hit the nail on the head. They're more interested in playing passively and, you know, try not to upset the apple cart rather than trying to push the ball down the field. And we saw Mac Jones ignite basically on the sideline. And he's not alone. A lot of the skilled position players are frustrated as well. Excuse me, I'm losing my voice.

But, you know, it was just brutal. And the clock management at the end of the first half compounded things. I thought, you know, that's football one-on-one stuff. You call a timeout and you're calling a quarterback sneak, which really didn't fool anybody. You would think that the offensive coordinator would call two plays and you relay them to the players in the huddle and not have to take another time out

after a quarterback sneak. I thought that was awful. But, you know, the offensive line is an absolute mess. The play calling, it lacks creativity. I go back to the, I think it was early in the third quarter, you know, they, I wrote about it this morning. They had three straight runs by Ramondre Stevenson that gained 24 yards, which to me, I thought probably 22 of those were all on him, not the blocking he was getting. And so I'm thinking to myself, okay, but they got some chunk yardage in the running game. Now would be the time, put Mack on the center, play action pass, and try to push the ball down the field.

You would at least slow down those linebackers. And instead, they went to the well one time too many. You know, Stevenson gets hit for a four-yard loss, and they're behind the sticks, end of drive. You know, because the one thing that this team has shown, when they get behind the sticks, they can very rarely pull themselves out. And I thought that was egregious play calling right there. It absolutely was.

And I'm glad that you mentioned play action, because if you look at the statute, look at the breakdowns of the way the New England Patriots tried to move the football on Thursday, they were fairly effective out of play action. I believe Patriots.com had them at five of six on play action attempts. And even though the Marcus Jones 48 yard touchdown, which folks, we will get to, there was a bright spot yesterday and his name is marcus jones we are going to talk about him a little bit but with the exception of that the patriots really didn't dip into that play that play action well and i'm really surprised that they didn't do that it led to some of the difficulties that you're seeing and ultimately i mean when you are

continuously futile on third down and the new england patriots were once again only converting three of 12 0 for 1 in the red zone. You're not going to win. You're absolutely not going to win. And I said that today to open the show. The Patriots ultimately wanted to utilize the quick passing concepts. They thought that it would force the Bills into tackling in space, but the Bills were

ready for it. Now, there's no question about it. Even when they had good intentions, Mac Jones was completing his passes to targets that were short of the sticks, especially on third down. They were far, you know, in some cases, pretty far away from the first down marker. So when you have insufficient time to operate and you're trying to dink and dunk your way down on the field with five yard check downs, Mac really had little to no chance to do anything else but to take those. And it led to frustrations on the field. And you saw that in that sideline outburst, which I'm sure we've all seen the video. Folks, if you haven't, I wrote about it. I think every beat writer in the nation

right now, whether you cover the Patriots or not, has written about it. But there was definite frustration. And that's something that I want to ask you about as well, because not only are we seeing Matt get frustrated on the sideline, guys like Kendrick Bourne, Hunter Henry, and their postgame comments were very candid about the fact that they want to see this Patriots offense break out a little bit. I don't remember a Patriots offensive skill position set the way we're seeing some of these guys be so vocal about the coaching. Is this a concern for New England? Oh, yeah, absolutely. I mean, when you look at the grand scheme of things, now I was one of the ones that early in the season when everyone was glooming and dooming Matt Patricia, I was like, we haven't even seen it yet. So you have to let it play out. Now, granted, you know, when you're starting a new system as they did this year, you have to

give it a little time because you're going to have to work the kinks out. But now we're into December and they're still doing the same things and they're still making the same mistakes and they're still not being very creative at all with the offensive play calling. So now it's time to question it. The players are frustrated, obviously. Mack's been frustrated since training camp. You know, he kind of kept it under wraps, but I mean, we saw that, you know know back in training camp mac was very frustrated and things i haven't changed for the better i mean last week you know i thought they had turned a corner a little bit and this week they they went right back to you know being pretty inept

i mean the first half other than the one pass to Marcus Jones and the doinked field goal, everything was three and out. And you're not going to beat good teams that way. And the time of possession showed it. I think Buffalo had, I think it was 38-08 time of possession, and the Patriots had 21. 21. You're not going to win

many games that way. Your defense, I don't care how good they are, they're going to get tired. And, you know, the Patriots' defense wasn't all that bad. I mean, they got victimized, but, you know, I give so much credit to Josh Allen for this game.

He only threw for 223 yards. It seemed like a lot more. Yeah. I thought he threw for like 350. But getting back to the offense, I mean, this unit is hamstrung by poor play calling, terrible offensive line play. And, you know, it just snowballs you have good skill position players are they great no they're not great but you know going back to six super bowl

wins did the Patriots have a great skill position players no they had a lot of really good lunch pail guys yeah and I think they have that right now but you know when every route is three or four yards i mean how are they gonna how are they gonna excel they can't yeah you're absolutely right they can't you can't excel and i'm glad you mentioned the offensive skill position players because zach cox of nessen had a nice breakdown folks if you haven't checked this out go ahead and check out Zach's feed on his Twitter feed because he does break it down very nicely that with the exception of Ramondre Stevenson and Jacoby Myers, who have been very good this year for the Patriots,

almost every other major offensive skill position player is playing under par from where they've been in their career. Typically, you take a look at Kendrick Bourne, Johnnie Smith, Hunter Henry, Devontae Parker, guys that are making catches. They're making plays on occasion. But on average, these guys are falling below the equator when it comes to what they're capable of doing. And you have to wonder about the play calling. You have to wonder about the position that these guys are being put in in order to try

to make plays. Bill Belichick, once again, did say that they're going to go back to the drawing board. There's not a magic wand out there that's going to just magically fix this between now and next Monday when they play in Arizona against the Cardinals. But right now it's looking difficult for the New England Patriots to be able to compete within this division, within this conference, and that offense definitely needs some work. There's no question about it. And it starts at the top with the coaching staff.

You've got to put a little bit on Mack as well. Sometimes his eyes are not in the right spot. There have been questionable decision-making situations where he does deserve some of that blame. But for the fans to put this all on him, and some are. Some are, I think, unnecessarily putting this all on mac's shoulders and thinking that by installing bailey zappy or whoever you want to put in is magically going to fix this team folks it's not mac jones is not as big of a problem as a lot of the national pundits are making him out to be this is a structural problem and the new england patriots have to solve that and it starts with the coaching staff but Steve there were a couple of bright spots yesterday and in true New England Patriots

or locked on Patriots uh fashion we want to try to end on a high note send our listeners into the weekend thinking positive thoughts I know folks it's tough but I'm an incurable optimist I'm going to try to do that for you in just a moment and And my good friend here, my Patriots bison is going to help me do it. But first, please remember that today's episode is brought to you by Audible. Audible is releasing a new slate of football podcasts that we're sure you're going to love. Find Block Forever now wherever you get your podcasts. Block Forever is a brand new podcast from former NFL All-Pro Ryan Khalil and Audible. Khalil takes the conversation about football, and he takes it to the next level, giving football fans and insiders look at the game through the eyes of the greatest players and personalities of all time.

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Patriots fans, the resident voice of reason here on Locked On Patriots is lending his wisdom and counsel the way only he can, helping you try to get through a football-free weekend here in Foxborough. But it wasn't a football-free week for the New England Patriots. Unfortunately, a 24 to 10 loss over the Buffalo Bills is going to stick in the craw of Patriots Nation for quite some time, Steve, until the Pats next take the field on Sunday, December 12th in Glendale, Arizona State Farm Stadium as they go against the Arizona Cardinals. But in the meantime, Steve, we want to try to give our listeners

a little something to feel good about this weekend. And it's not easy. The Patriots did not perform well on any of the three phases, including Nick Fulk dunking one off of the crossbar from 48 yards. I will never say anything bad about Nick Fulk because, Lord bless him, he has been probably the most consistent point scorer for this team all season long. But that's just, I think, a microcosm of how the game went. But the Patriots did have a bright spot, and his name was Marcus Jones.

Steve, this rookie continues to dazzle, and he continues to bring smiles to the face of Patriots Nation. He is a stout return man, one of the best right now that the Patriots have had in quite a while. And I think a chance to really be one of the league's standout return specialists. He's a pretty adept defensive back. He's getting some starts, getting some notable minutes out there. But one thing that a lot of people didn't realize is that his time at wide receiver and playing some receiver at the university of houston would end up bringing him into a pro game setting and i gotta give credit to murph because he mentioned this earlier this week about this guy getting a shot as a slot receiver well the patriots utilized him on a screen in the slot

and a play action pass that he took 48 yards to the house for the pats opening touchdown and i think a lot of people first touchdown i shouldn't say it wasn't opening folks but it was the first touchdown of the game and it really filled i you know people with a lot of optimism for this one unfortunately that's about as good as it got for the past but marcus jones continuing to dazzle what is your opinion of this kid and how impressed do you continue to be with what he's showing? Oh, he's a fantastic guy with the ball in his hands, isn't he? I mean, every time he touches the ball, you lean forward in your seat because you think something exciting is going to happen. And, you know, it frequently does. That play was, I mean, that was one of the best executed plays

they had last night. He caught that ball. He got a little block at the beginning. And once he cut it to the outside, boy, I mean, he looked like he burst, you know, into that passing gear. And then you knew no one was going to catch him. This kid is very exciting. You could hear the crowd just getting louder and louder, you know,

as he was moving down the field. And you talk about multi-talented, versatile players. Belichick loves these guys. Absolutely. You know, he plays special teams. He was down on a special teams tackle i believe as well um you know he's an excellent returner he played i think 34 35 snaps last night on defense you know um and then you know he led the team i i know that's you know damning with faint praise but

uh you know he led the team in receiving last night. So when a rookie defensive back is leading your team in receiving, that's pretty indicative that things didn't go well. But he is incredible. I love watching him play. I think he's destined for a lot of great things in this league. And that play was – I i mean i could sit there and watch that time after time he's really really good um getting back to nick falk you know it's

funny you know when when i see nick falk inside of 50 yards and i see justin tucker on the field it's the same thing i i kind of stopped watching the game because this is going through. Al Michaels fell right to that last one. I was just going to say that. I did. I read that. He went in the middle. And then I was watching it, and I was like,

that ball seems to be dropping pretty quick. And I'm like, oh, my God. I think that's one Al would like to have that. Absolutely. And, you know, oh, my God. I think that's what Al would like to have done. Absolutely. And, you know, I mean, when you could fool Al Michaels, he's pretty much seen it all and done it all. When it comes to not just football, but all of professional sports, yeah, you know things are not going your way,

and things definitely didn't go the Patriots' way last night in any stretch of the imagination. But Jones is a guy that I think the Patriots can be excited about, and not just because of his ability as a return man. The blazing speed is something we knew coming out of Houston. Maybe we're a little bit more impressed with it, seeing it at a pro level, and seeing that collegiate prowess being translated into the NFL, but this is a kid who can see it all and do it all, and it reminded me of a couple of years ago. I had a really,

or I had the fortune, I should say, of sitting in on a really good conversation, a really good media scrum with Dante Skarnecchia. And Dante, much like Bill Belichick, when you talk X's and O's football and strategy, something comes out of these guys. They really, really enjoy it. They light up and they get very candid and very descriptive in terms of what they love to see out of football players. And I remember Dante just looking, and I can't remember who he was addressing in the media, but he said, you know what makes a good tackler? He says, you know what makes a good tackler? He says, someone that can evade a tackle. He says, and what makes a good evader, he says, is someone who knows how to tackle. And I remembered that from Marcus last night, because that's something that he was very

good at when he was with the University of Houston. We all know about the prowess in return game, the Hornig Award, all of that. But one of the things that kept coming out of Houston when he was being highly touted as a potential second round pick third round pick and New England ended up getting him was his ability to tackle in the open field and I think that really is serving him well in terms of knowing how to run the routes how to counter run the routes and be a weapon on both sides of the ball not just from a receiving perspective but also from a perspective of being a defensive back sometimes those guys that have dual threat capabilities make the most versatile players.

And we know he's been working with Troy Brown. So, you know, Troy was grinning from ear to ear when he saw that out of Marcus last night. Definitely a great thing. His speed, his ability to recognize the route, make him valuable as a slot corner. But I think the Patriots may have found a potential occasional weapon coming out of the backfield and in the slot. And you know what? If they do, I don't think we've seen the last of Marcus Jones in this role. No, and that played last night on national television.

When they put him out there in the slot now, team's antennas are going to go up. Absolutely. They're going to be looking at, okay, we've seen what this guy can do. We're not just going to discount him as a decoy, so to speak.

I don't think he's going to be an every-down kind of guy, but you put him in a couple of times a game, maybe it lets somebody else get open. It gives you something to think about, and don't kid yourself. The fact that he is so fast is going to make him command the attention of more than one guy on that defense.

And if that is the case, then you're absolutely right. It's going to free up somebody to be able to do something special. So this is something the Patriots can build on offensively. It's not the answer to what's, what's what's ailing them folks, but it is going to give them an opportunity before we wrap up today, Steve, I wanted to get a bright spot on the defensive side of the ball, because as you said, the defense, I don't think played a particularly horrible game. They just, they were victimized by a offense that is just very good at what they do and a quarterback that is excellent at what he does. But I wanted to talk a little bit about linebacker Josh Boucher,

who continues to emerge as a major player in this defense. Had a subpar year last year, and a lot of people were wondering if this guy was really worth the hype that he got when he came out of Michigan in the 2020 draft. But this kid is continuing to get better. He's more active in the middle of that defense, really becoming a factor in the pass rush. Two sacks last night, seven total tackles. Is this someone that the New England Patriots can now feel confident in as being a major player in this defense for years to come?

Oh, yeah, I think so. I mean, you know, the funny thing is I was thinking about him around the midpoint of the season because I think through the first seven or eight games, he only had one tackle this year. And I was thinking, man, I can't believe this guy is, you know, not going to make it. I saw him coming out. I thought he was destined for really good things.

And then all of a sudden, it seemed like the light has come on for him, and he's getting better and better. I still think he's more of a sub-packaged pass rusher kind of guy. Good point. I think he still has trouble setting the edge in the running game. But when you can bring in a guy like that, that can continuously – I mean, the athleticism when they showed that one sack where he came around the edge and he bent down to like a ridiculous level.

That's – you can't teach that. Guys can either do it or they can't. Right. And that was – I i mean that was an incredible move and you know the the tackle who had played really good and uh i i'm trying to remember his name now but uh he was filling in he's like a backup but he had played really well but he he got air on that one he didn't even touch it yeah dav Yeah, but it was Cuisinberry, wasn't it? Yeah. Yeah, Cuisinberry. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, Uche has really come on, and it's only going to help Matthew Judon. He's been getting a lot of double teams lately. I still think he's getting held a lot lately, too, but that's a story for another time. Absolutely.

You're right on the money when it comes to Matthew Judon. And I'll save that for another discussion that we're going to have here on Locked On Patriots very soon because you're absolutely right on that. But yeah, him drawing the double team is something that we saw last year. up does affect the fact that Matthew Judon is now seeing that extra man that may have gone to someone like a Barmore who's able to keep these guys at bay. Barmore's not going to show up a lot on the stat sheet. I always saw a lot of people negative on him this season. Oh, he's not doing anything. A lot of what Barmore does is stuff that doesn't register on the stat sheet, folks. So him containing some of these guys is one of the reasons why guys like Matthew Judon can break free. And you're seeing him double teamed an awful lot this year.

But again, my friend, we want to end on a high note. And the high notes in this game were definitely Marcus Jones on the offensive side of the ball, which says a lot when your offensive highlight is primarily a special teamer and secondarily a defender. Really, yeah, it says something, no question about it. And also, of course, Josh Uche on the defensive side of the ball. But, Steve, it's always an honor, always a pleasure to talk ball with you. I thank you for taking time out of your schedule on a Friday to talk to me here and bring a little wisdom and counsel to Patriots Nation,

because I think we definitely need it, and we needed that resident voice of reason to kind of calm us and talk us off the ledge. Before I let you go, my friend, please let everyone know where they can find you, where they can interact with you, and what type of great work that you're coming up with in the next week or so heading into the Patriots Week 14 matchup against the Arizona Cardinals. Yeah, and thanks, as as always for having me on.

I love talking football with my, my, my Patriot pies on here. I miss hanging out with you at Gillette stadium, but. Likewise. But you know, I can't complain. I'm sitting out here right now and 78 degrees and nice, cool breeze blowing. So. Yeah. It's in the thirties here. Yeah. You can't complain right now and 78 degrees and nice cool breeze blowing so yeah it's in the 30s here yeah you can't complain right now i'm in shorts and a t-shirt you know all right now you're rubbing it in steve that's i'm kidding but i'm kidding enjoy it enjoy it you earned it my friend no uh before i start diving into the cardinals this uh this upcoming week i. I'm trying to go through and re-watch

the game and do my Patriots report card, which will be in my Sunday football notes. I'm trying to be fair about things, but there's not a lot of great things to see out of this game. Yeah, there really isn't. Coming up with a progress report, coming up with a final report card is always difficult no matter what game or no matter what point in the season. But after a game like we saw last night, it's tough to find the silver linings. But the Patriots are going to have to do that because, like it or not,

they're still in a playoff race. They're still in the hunt, and it's 6-6. The England Patriots are not dead yet, folks, and we'll see if they can climb out of the doldrums and once again make this a race. And we'll discuss that next week, all week long, here on Locked on Patriots as we continue our march to Monday Night Football and the Patriots on December 12th.

In the meantime, thank you so much, all of you, for making Locked on Patriots a daily part of your New England Patriots coverage and also your first listen every day. Now that you've made also your first listen every day. Now that you've made us your first listen, make your second listen with our good friends over at Locked On Sports Today. I had the distinct pleasure of joining my good friend Peter Bukowski on Locked On Sports Today to talk a little Patriots football. So if you're still interested in hearing some of those takes,

definitely check that out. But it's a good idea to check it out anyway, because Locked On Sports Today gives you all the highlights from all of the major sports, pro and collegiate, takes definitely check that out but it's a good idea to check it out anyway because lockdown sports today gives you all the highlights from all of the major sports pro and collegiate and they even give you the take of the day download subscribe to follow lockdown sports today wherever you get your audio podcasts or video podcasts including the odyssey app youtube and many other major covers folks we thank you once again for joining us here today. On behalf of my good friend, Steve Balistrieri,

I'm Mike DeBate. Stay safe, stay well, be the change you wish to see in the world. Have a great weekend, everybody, and we'll be back here again for you on Monday.